Text by: Romana Lilic
Photos: LA76 Strategic Design & Photography
Published in: ESCAPES #7

“I BELIEVE in an emotional architecture.”, once said one of Mexico’s most influential architects, Luis Barragán. Barragán reinvented Mexican modern architecture with sensuous aesthetics, vivid colors, attention to spaces and light, while accentuating the building’s natural surroundings. Emotional or sensual architecture is just how we could describe the style of San Jose del Cabo’s new contemporary home by acknowledged Mexican architects Javier Gutiérrez Toscano and Antonio Plá from ColectivoMX.

Casa Gavión evokes an emotional reaction at your first encounter. The impact of its massive proportions, volumes, forms, textures and colors will not leave you unmoved, guaranteed. Before continuing to explore its spaces indoors and outdoors, we recommend that you take off your flip flops, as this home is best enjoyed barefoot. Then stretch your arms, open your hands, and get ready for a flood of sensations. Casa Gavión is literally a sensational home.

In an awarded architectural studio ColectivoMX, well known for their regionalism in home design, they had four principles in mind during the creation of this impressive nature conscious home; passive pollution of the area by using regional materials and local labor force during the construction, sensibility of the materials by using different textures and reinterpreting their usage, integrating the indoor and outdoor spaces, and thus maximizing the usage of the space, while keeping the home user friendly with low maintenance costs.

The concept of the home is based on its residents and the enjoyment of all the spaces, where exterior becomes equally important as interior, complimenting the great weather of Baja California Sur. All the spaces in Casa Gavión are looking to the exterior, with each room having its own garden or terrace.

Dining and living room open to the large terrace and patio with the pool and lounge area. Bedroom on the ground level looks to the cardon cactus patio, and the kitchen opens to the stone patio and the garden. Both master bedrooms on the 1st floor each have their own terrace, and on the 2nd floor there is a large terrace with 360 C views of the Sea of Cortez, adjacent golf courses and the majestic mountains, ideal for sipping wine at sunset and star gazing.

The key characteristic of this home and the essence for its name is the rock wall, “gavión”. While you will notice gavión at the sides of the federal highway between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, the architect reinterpreted its use and its excellent isolation features to protect the spaces in the home from the sun while at the same time making it function as blinds, letting the air through the wall and cooling the area.

The advantage of owning a home in Baja is being able to live inside and outside at the same time. When walking around, you will notice that this home is without windows: pocket doors have been built throughout the home, so when you are in, you can have them wide open and enjoy the fresh breeze, the salty ocean smell and the birds singing. Windows in Casa Gavión function as a security asset: you use your windows when you are not using your home. The orientation of the home, cross ventilation, pergolas and a rock wall ensure isolation within the home and eliminate the need to use the air-conditioning.

Eternal summer was one of the reasons for different textures, implemented in this home. Rock wall, pebble stones, gypsum, stucco, rustic plaster, fine plaster and wood are only some of the materials you will enjoy while walking around barefoot. In the main patio alone you can experience fine grass, beach sand, water, stucco and rustic plaster, which you can enjoy depending on your feelings and desires. Let your children play in the house and see how impressed by the textures they will be. The architect’s daughters are walking around barefoot with their hands stretched out, touching and feeling everything that surrounds them with great joy.

In the past, hearing the term “ecological home” we used to think of high construction and high maintenance costs. Luckily, with  advances in technology, acceptance of the eco standards world wide and with it also lower implementation prices, Javier Gutierrez confirms that the construction costs of this home didn’t exceed the construction cost of any regular home.

The home has been planed and prepared to help you save energy and money, while protecting the nature at the same time. Prepared system for solar energy will help greatly reduce the consumption of electricity. Grey water usage system is installed and ready to use. Ingenious planning of the pool, consisting of dipping pool, swimming pool and jacuzzi reduces the water consumption generally used in homes with pools. Besides that, the roof, which is the largest source of heat to any house, is isolated with thick high density foam, thus reducing the need for AC.

Hard to comprehend for anyone having experienced the summers in Baja, but proven true, is that in Casa Gavión you don’t need to use air-conditioning, even in the hottest summer months. The cross-ventilation, isolation, the mix of indoor and outdoor spaces, open pocket doors, ventilators and breeze assure a fresh wind through all the living areas. Even though, air-conditioners are set for days or moments too hot to handle.

Casa Gavión is truly a sensational home. It will tickle your senses and bring out emotions, every day, guaranteed.

*Casa Gavión is FOR SALE. Contact us for a brochure and to schedule a tour: escapes@cbriveras.com.

See the full photo gallery from our photo shoot:

Casa Gavion, San Jose del Cabo – Images by Romana Lilic @LA76

Read an article about Casa Shelly, an awarded home by architectural studio ColectivoMX.

A rumor in Los Cabos this week started evolving around the SuRi Yacht, which was seen in Puerto Los Cabos and Chileno Bay. Because of its name, luxury motor yacht SuRi can’t shake off the rumors that it is Tom Cruise’s yacht, but with the help of our friend, Cabo San Lucas photographer Marcel Kaiser, we came along a news item from Fairfax NZ News, which confirms that the rumor is just a rumor.

Wherever it goes, “Tomkat” rumours will surely follow. But the gossip, stemming from the name of the motor yacht that is the same as the Cruises’ daughter, has got it wrong. Yacht Escort Ships owner and builder of the SuRi Stan Antrim said the rumours the motor yacht was owned by the Cruises followed it wherever it sailed. While he would not reveal the real owner’s full name, he was a wealthy American who worked in the financial sector, Mr. Antrim said. The motor yacht’s name was taken from the first two letters of the owner’s wife’s name, Susan, and the first two letters of the businessman’s own name, Rick, he said.

Despite a US$30 million (NZ$43 million) price tag and featuring a hovercraft, speedboat, dune buggy and jetskis, the converted crab boat was actually a support vessel for a superyacht, the JeMaSa. Mr Antrim said the JeMaSa was taken from the first two letters of the names of the owner’s daughters Jennifer, Maggie and Sarah.

Yacht Charter Description

Motor yacht SURI (52m) is an ideal support yacht (shadow boat) to compliment the equipment and accommodation on board your ‘mother ship’ luxury yacht. She contains all the water ‘toys’ and equipment imaginable including a gym, Jacuzzi pool, sundeck, as well as jet skis and specialists tenders etc.

SURI, unlike some support boats, also boasts a luxurious interior accommodation for up to 12 charter guests in the form of a lovely master suite with sitting room adjacent and a further double cabin, twin cabin, and a convertable, all with ensuite bathrooms. During SURI’s recent refit, there were two additional guests cabins added. She also offers a exterior sunning, BBQ and dining areas and a well fitted lounge and dining area along with electronic entertainment systems and the usual creature comforts.

The support yacht has:

A-Star helicopter
4-person Hover craft
35′Stancraft mahogany speedster
28′ aluminum landing craft dune buggy
37′ Intrepid
Numerous jet skis, rowing shells, sailboats, kayaks, dive gear, ski equipment

NOTE: Please confirm with your yacht charter consultant as to exactly what equipment will be included and any licenses and special conditions required for its operation.

Yacht Charter Accommodation

Motor yacht SURI can accommodate up to 12 guests in 4 Double, 1 Twin, and 1 Convertible cabin all with en-suite facilities

Yacht Charter Specifications

Charter Amenities and Extras

Audio Visual Equipment and Deck Facilities Seatel 4004 Sat TV system Kaleidescape DVD server Crestron controls (12) Runco LCD TV’s (46″ – 27″). Communications (2) Furuno 2020 w/ARPA KVH Mini-M SatCom Compass w/2 GPS Simrad autopilot Hailer AIS (2) VHF radios Sperry gyro compass Dirigio Mag Furuno NavNet system electronic charting (2) Furuno sounders Fleet 77 voice Panasonic PABX telephone loud aviation radio.

by Mariano Arias Diez
Contemporary Urban Space
Architect, a10studio
Feed back: info@a10studio.net

BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR (BCS), the youngest state of Mexico (37 years), has been acknowledged as one of the most beautiful places in Mexico, and due to its proximity to the United States, often referred to as a second home retreat for baby boomers. With the growth and development of Baja the interest and migration of young professionals to this unique place have grown as well. Young professionals are good for BCS, not only because we’ll have a generation that will continue the legacy of the land, but mostly because they are the ones who will be able to promote it, build it and make it grow with new creative and quality ideas. Today, we need strategic urban planning, development of walking areas, functional drainage systems, traffic re-direction, sustainable, efficient and cost effective ideas and implementation, which will improve the future of the towns and of people who live here.

Due to several reasons, it wasn’t always possible to find the best quality for things we would like to do in this region. Slowly, this has changed, and the once popular demand for caricaturized “Mexican” homes often seen in some western movies, has started to be replaced with contemporary design, sustainable living and a preservation of local nature.

Young professionals in BCS have been often under-appreciated. Good news is that young architects with academic and professional international experience have started coming here, recognizing its development potential and a challenge they want to be part of. In this occasion, I’d like to talk about four young architectural offices established in BCS, which have recently received national and international recognition for their work in the area:

Colectivo MX is an architectural office with Los Cabos and Mexico City offices, guided by Arch. Javier Gutierrez. They received a Silver Medal in the X Mexican Biennale of Architecture in 2008 for their project Casa Shelly, an ecological home located on the East Cape, which uses solar energy to generate electricity, has pool with salted water, a system for re-use of treated water and other ecological techniques.

Another example of young talent is fabriKG, guided by Arch. Gonzalo Elizarrarás, in Los Cabos, and Arch. Benjamin Scharf in Berlin, Germany, who were nominated in the category of Future Residential Projects at the World Architecture Festival Awards 09 in Barcelona, for their project Knit Atelier House.

From La Paz, collective TALCO, leaded by Mauricio Sanchez Torres and Adriaan Schalkwijk, who, in cooperation with Alejandro Dacosta, developed the project Aquatic Park Coromuel, which received 1st place in urban development on national category at the CEMEX 2009 awards.

Lastly we’d like to mention a10studio, with presence in Los Cabos and Mexico City, whose project Re.evolution lounge+bar has been extensively published in acknowledged and specialized design and architectural media, and is nominated for the international award “Restaurant and Bar Design Awards” in the U.K.

These four young architectural offices are a small example of talent that we have in the region today, and we’ll be surely hearing about them in the future. Hopefully, planning and urban authorities, developers and clients will support the young talents, listen to their new ideas, views and possibilities for the better future development of our State.

The column was first published in the printed edition of ESCAPES magazine #5.

The fulfillment of a dream on the languorous magic of an ancient Turkish gulet, reincarnated as if it had sailed in from a myth. Anouska Hempel has designed a yacht that is the realization of fantasies.

Beluga One, a traditional 85 foot Turkish gulet, was completely re-hauled, re-fitted, re-engineered – and given a renaissance, as one of the most exquisite crafts afloat.

It is now now one of the most beautiful boats on the Mediterranean. As if built for a Pasha, it contains every hi-tech specification beneath the glow of its beautiful wooden surfaces, Vuitton trunks and cane shutters, whilst entertaining thirty to dinner is de rigeur. Accompanied by a baby Riva of the same colors, mahogany and black: a breathtaking combination.

ANOUSKA HEMPEL DESIGN

Anouska Hempel Design has an unrivalled international reputation for architecture, interiors, landscapes, products and furniture. They are known for influential hotel design: Blakes Hotels in London and Amsterdam, and The Hempel in London. These hotels are soon to be joined by the Grosvenor House Apartments and the La Suite Hotels in London and Warapuru in Brazil. Other projects in our broad portfolio include exclusive boutiques, iconic gardens, exquisite yachts and hotel management.

Antonio Wong Tabasco, Founder of the Hotel California

“Baja is flip flop funky… Todos Santos… lined with artisans shops, and it is here that you will find The Hotel California.”
-Vanity Fair

• Hotel California is accessed by driving down a long desert highway from either Los Cabos to the south or La Paz to the east.
• The Mission Church of Pilar is located directly adjacent to the hotel and mission bells are heard daily. Since the Church is so close it sounds like they are almost inside the hotel at times.
• Countless stories and firsthand witnesses relating to spirits and ghosts in the courtyard of the hotel.
• During the “Hippie Era” of the 1960s and 1970s, people were know to easily grow their own marijuana in the extremely fertile land of the Todos Santos area and then roll them into “Colitas” which is a Mexican slang term for “Joint” or Marijuana cigarette.
• The simple fact that the Hotel California in Todos Santos was built in 1947 which was of course far before the “Hippie” or “Classic Rock” eras

 

During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the picture became much more clear again.  The hotel had become neglected and in 2001, a Canadian couple John and Debbie Stewart purchased the hotel.  After completing a masterful renovation, which would later win numerous awards for design and décor, the original 16 rooms were transformed into the eclectic 11 suite hotel it is today.  The restaurant, La Coronela and bar were added and the area of the original gas station became the tienda Emporio, the hotel’s boutique gallery/bazaar.

John Stewart, creator of the modern era Hotel California

“A little jewel in the middle of the desert.”
-John Stewart, creator of the modern era Hotel California

Today the “legendary” Hotel California is an icon, shining brighter than ever.  It continues to evolve, changing with the times as it has since its birth in 1947.

 

For more information about the Hotel California, restaurants, events and bookings, please visit www.hotelcaliforniabaja.com

Pittsburgh Paints’s Color Show in Cabo San Lucas Presents a Palette of “Wow Color Now” for Home Décor in 2011-2012

Not shy reds, aquas and blues grounded with wood-tone browns celebrate Americans’ pursuit of triumph over adversity

Color is back in a big way, according to PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ color forecast for home décor in 2011-2012. Homeowners will gravitate towards bold, bright, bodacious color in the home, instead of the predominant grays and beiges of past years. The company’s color experts see a renewed focus on individual expression, manifested in such highly personal color choices as lipstick red, aqua, and poetic blue. These are just a few of the 20 paint colors presented in four new “Wow Color Now” palettes from PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ The Voice of Color® program, which sets the stage for a vibrant 2011 and 2012.

“The mood today is one of triumph over adversity,” says Dee Schlotter, Brand Manager, The Voice of Color, PPG Pittsburgh Paints. “Despite the challenges that Americans have faced recently, our need to succeed prevails. It’s a triumph of the individual and of personal expression, and there’s no better way to express yourself than with the transformative power of color in your home.”

Two societal trends are driving these trends in color, says Schlotter. The first is a new level of consumer sophistication as design becomes democratized, aided by people’s ever-increasing ability to decipher and disseminate information in real-time. The second is the quest for authenticity in a world where knock-offs are pervasive and instantaneous.

“The home is becoming a lab for new technologies and new looks,” says Schlotter. “We keep what works, and start over when it doesn’t. But always, the search is on for what’s real and honest.”

Because a trend is never about just one color but rather about all the colors in a room or space, Schlotter notes, The Voice of Color creates signature five-color card that expresses the mood of each new palette and offers colors for paint, fabrics, flooring and accessories. The four new “Wow Color Now” palettes in PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ The Voice of Color® program for 2011-2012 are:

INstinct

The soul of this palette is warm and authentic. It fuses the ancient, the mythological, the raw, and the primitive with a highly technical and minimalist modern-day aesthetic. A mix of ethnic exoticism and modern urban sophistication, this style befits the grown-up taste of a true citizen of the world. This palette is the most muted and grounded, organic rather than adorned. It blends light and dark woods, burnished leather with raw utilitarian stitching, and deep browns and natural charcoal stones.

The palette is refined but essentially basic and showcases the colors of materials with rich earthy qualities—leather, minerals, wood, and fur—enabling their natural beauty, grain, and texture to emerge. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Cracked Slate, Silver Bells, Gypsum, Oregon Trail and Chaparral.

Glamour

With a focus on the “amour,” Glamour is mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and intricate. It’s déjà vu from a contemporary perspective; always intentional, never shy. Slightly theatrical, conjuring an atmosphere of a new-age Sleeping Beauty, Glamour’s take on pattern is bold and sharp, with plays on negative space to constantly surprise and delight.

The palette incorporates glorious neutrals inspired by the most sumptuous materials, and inspires thoughts of time-worn limestone, starkly modern crystal, magnificent black marble, the warmest gold and other color-infused metallics. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Dark as Night, Timber Beam, Angel Food, Almond Cream, and Rum Runner.

NEW Bohemia

Personality exudes from every inch of New Bohemia through a whimsical sense of design, a rebirth of craft, and the appearance of secondhand objects and other quirky and nostalgic elements. It’s a vintage aesthetic for a contemporary age, at once authentic, romantic, imaginative, and poetic— it positions the room as a discovery center or personal scrapbook. The style is gyp-set, fusing the ease and carefree lifestyle of a gypsy with the sophistication of the jet set.

With fantasy, fairytale, floral prints as an inspiration, color is innocently romantic and untamed. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Red Cedar, Happy Trails, Hat Box Brown, Green Wave, and Aqua Fiesta.

UPcycle

The green movement grown up, UPcycle is about living simply with beautiful, useful, and sustainable objects. It is a philosophy steeped in the desire for clarity, function, and craftsmanship; it repudiates wastefulness and embraces the authentic, the meaningful, and the simply fun. Honest yet elegant, UPcycle is optimistic, clever, and proactive.

The palette is simple, honest, and upbeat, as the colors coordinate with wood, basic yarns, wool, cotton, untreated metals, and simply glazed ceramics in tone-on-tone. A color-blocking effect injects the dose of “up” into this color cycle and lights up pale wood tones. PPG Pittsburgh Paints colors include Brown Basket, Allspice, Gold Buff, Chalkware, and Adventure.

Finally, it’s important for designers to know about the upcoming trends, says Schlotter, because their clients certainly will. Consumers are becoming savvier every day, says Schlotter. They notice and instantly assess the aesthetics around them, from the coffee shop they visit to the airport they travel through to the tissue box they buy.

The “Wow Color Now” color palettes, as well as the nearly 2,000 colors from The Voice of Color, are available in any of PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ paint lines, including environmentally responsible PPG Pure Performance®. PPG Pure Performance is a premium quality paint that has zero VOCs and features minimal odor during application and drying.

To learn more about PPG Pittsburgh Paints and The Voice of Color’s “Wow Color Now” color palettes, and to find the dealer nearest you, please visit the PPG Pittsburgh Paints color website at www.voiceofcolor.com. You can purchase Pittsburgh Paints colors at Pinturas FAMZA in Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, www.pinturasfamza.com. Contact them at: famza_2@hotmail.com

PPG Color Leadership

PPG employs more than 20 color stylists around the world, each specializing in different markets, who collaborate to determine styles and color trends for the home, electronics, and automobiles. PPG’s unique position as a color leader in multiple markets allows it to observe and translate emerging global color trends for its customers’ applications—from consumer goods to automotive color, from residential to commercial to industrial design.

About The Voice of Color

PPG Pittsburgh Paints and PPG developed The Voice of Color program on the premise that every color has an emotional association and that individuals are drawn to different colors for reasons inherently tied to their unique personalities. With more than 1,800 colors to choose from, the program offers its signature five-color decorating color chips to assist homeowners in choosing colors for all the décor elements in their space. The Voice of Color is an integrated, comprehensive design system that offers tools and materials to redefine the world of color. Through an engaging on-line experience, homeowners can identify their color personality and find the colors that best complement their style, personality, and five senses. Among The Voice of Color elements are: the Color Sense Game®; yearly color trends; exclusive color families and color palettes such as Hacienda Style and Fallingwater®-inspired colors; unique decorating color chips; wet paint sample program; and website at www.voiceofcolor.com.

About PPG

PPG Industries’ vision is to continue to be the world’s leading coatings and specialty products company. Founded in 1883, the company serves customers in industrial, transportation, consumer products, and construction markets and aftermarkets. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2009 were $12.2 billion. PPG shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: PPG). For more information, visit www.ppg.com.

The history of development of Los Cabos, told in two videos through the eyes of the developers, who were here when it all started. Among them Don Abelardo Rodriguez, Bud Parr, Luis Coppola, the Díaz Rivera family, Manuel Yturbe, Marco Monroy Milán, John A. Vaughan, Mario Gadsden, Gonzalo Franyutti, and many others.

The videos are in Spanish, but the imagery is easy to understand:

Part #1:

Part #2

This beautiful yacht designed by Philippe Starck has been making waves in Los Cabos, in showing off its beauty in Puerto Los Cabos and Cabo San Lucas marinas. We have to admit that it looks very impressive, and it is a pleasure to see it cruising the waters of Baja California Sur.

The "A" Yacht in Cabo San Lucas bay. Our apologies for a low resolution image.

The article about the “A” yacht by Robert Frank, Wallstreet Journal:

At the top of a spiral staircase lined with scalloped, silver-leaf walls (the banister cost $60,000) is a door accessible by a fingerprint security system. It opens to an all-white, 2,583-square-foot master suite wrapped in bomb-proof, 44-milimeter glass. There, a king-sized bed sits on a giant platter that rotates with the press of a silver button. Another set of buttons rotates the bed itself. The combination of the rotating bed and the rotating platter allows limitless angles for watching the sunset, sunrise or the 60-inch plasma TV, which retracts from the ceiling.

And of course, everything’s afloat.

In the battle among Russia’s billionaires for yacht supremacy, Roman Abramovich’s upcoming 540-foot Eclipse may soon become the biggest, but Andrey Melnichenko‘s 394-foot “A” has become the most talked-about yacht on the seas.

With its radical shape—more sleek submarine than boxy pleasure boat—and reams of custom parts and finishes (including bath knobs costing $40,000 apiece), “A” is a conspicuous marker of an ocean-going plutocracy that’s largely been untouched by the recession. The boat, designed by Philippe Starck and completed in mid-2008 for more than $300 million USD, has spawned a flotilla of copycats emulating its low-slung hull and design scheme. Numerous companies involved in its construction went bankrupt, done in by the novelty of the project and the level of customization required.

For all its fame, “A” remains a bit mysterious. Its owner, a 38-year-old banking, steel and fertilizer czar, is intensely private and requires all his construction crew and staff to sign strict confidentiality agreements (he declined comment for this article). He and his wife only rarely entertain on board, and few public images of the boat’s interior exist.

Dirk Kloosterman, “A”‘s project manager and a veteran of the world’s largest yachts, recently provided an exclusive tour of the boat’s 23,600 square feet of living space.

The boat’s interior departs dramatically from most conventions of yacht design. Instead of the usual overstuffed couches and mahogany walls, there are Baccarat-crystal tables, shiny white finishes and polished silver, a kind of Manhattan-loft-meets-Vegas aesthetic. Many of the rooms have floor-to-ceiling mirrors, which Mr. Starck says have a built-in “mathematical beauty” that also refer to the “mathematical genius” of Mr. Melnichenko.

The walls of one room are covered in white sting-ray hides, while another is covered in hand-stitched calf’s leather. The main deck features two Michel Haillard chairs made from alligator hides and Kudo horns. Known for his mischievous streak, Mr. Starck outfitted “A” with risqué touches like the suite dubbed the “nookie room” by the crew, with its white circular bed with padded walls and a ceiling-mounted TV.

Mr. Starck says that while most megayachts are “vulgar” statements of wealth and power, “A” was designed to be in harmony with the sea and nature. “This boat has elegance and intelligence, it is not trying to show the money,” he adds.

As with many Russian-owned yachts, “A” is highly secure. Its rounded exterior and knife-like hull make it difficult for intruders to board. It has 44 security cameras and more than a dozen exterior cameras fitted with motion-detection systems and a night-vision infrared system.

It is also designed to outrun threats: Twin, high-speed diesel engines deliver 24,000 horsepower and push the 5,959-gross-ton ship to 24 knots, roughly a third faster than most boats its size. The boat, which is stabilized by fiber-optic gyroscopes and four giant motorized flaps, is rumored to also be equipped with a pod-like escape system, but the staff declined to comment.

A transom door in the rear of the boat, which swings with open to become a swim deck, is fitted with so many hydraulics, locking pins, rotating stairs and electronics that it cost around $25 million to build. The company that made it eventually went bankrupt, along with the company that made the bomb-proof wrap-around glass encasing the master suite and the company that built the hydraulic gangways. The ship’s two main landing boats are mini-yachts themselves, stretching to 36 feet, boasting plush interiors and costing more than $1 million each.

There’s little sign that the billionaire boat boom is ending. The recession has certainly hit the “middle-class” yacht market, as banks cut back on boat loans and mere millionaires struggle to rebuild their fortunes. Orders for boats of more than 80 feet fell to 753 last year from 992 in 2008, according to Showboats International magazine. Yet orders for superyachts, or those more than 250 feet, were actually up more than 20% in 2009, according to Showboats.

“A” has a crew of between 35 to 37 people, including stewards and stewardesses, mechanical engineers, security staff, housekeepers, deck hands, galley crew and chefs. The crew also has specialists for surfing, jet skiing, water skiing and cycling. All of the crew wear Starck-designed uniforms—crisp white dress shirts and white pants for daytime, and tight, black T-shirts and slacks for evening. The boat costs over $20 million a year to maintain; Filling the gas tank costs more than $500,000.

There are many discussion groups and forums about “A” online, with titles like “The Ugliest Yacht in the World” and “Should Philippe Starck Design Boats?” Debates can get heated: On the “Insider’s Guide to St. Bart’s”—a Web site frequented by vacationers on the upscale Caribbean island—dozens of “A” spotters tracked the boat’s daily movements.

“That’s pretty Cool!,” wrote one St. Bart’s vacationer. “Finally a real designer yacht!”.

Added another: “Who would call their Yacht ‘The A’? Seems like you’re setting yourself up big time.” (“A” stands for both Andrey and Aleksandra, Mr. Melnichenko’s Serbian-born supermodel wife).

Some yacht designers and brokers describe “A” as too futuristic and aggressive for the leisurely world of yachting. “Initially I was very skeptical,” says Jonathan Beckett, chief executive of London-based Burgess, the yacht broker. “When you just see photos, it’s a very strange-looking boat. But when I saw it cruising in the Caribbean this year, I have to say I was impressed. It’s a very exciting boat to watch. It’s simply unlike anything that’s ever been done before.”

Crew members often joke about the Melnichenkos’ penchant for the spontaneous, with frequent changes in itinerary or travel. The boat doesn’t spend much time in any one port, since Mr. Melnichenko prefers to roam the seas for weeks at a time. Last year he spent several months in the Mediterranean; this year he’s mainly in the Caribbean.

“In week late September 2010, the yacht has been seen in the port of San Jose del Cabo (Puerto Los Cabos) and in the bay of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico.” (Escape’s editor note).

“The fun thing about working on ‘A’ is you never know what the next hour will bring,” says Mr. Kloosterman, “A’s” project manager. “This boat is all about the unexpected.”

First published in WSJ: by Robert Frank, Wallstreet Journal

ESCAPES’s contributing architect Mariano Arias Diez from a10studio, with offices in Cabo San Lucas and Mexico City, has sent us an exciting news about their recent work. It’s a project they did for Agricultural Museum in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Agricultural production is one of the most internationally recognized emblems of Mexico, and particularly of the State of Sinaloa. The state of Sinaloa is known as the “granary of Mexico” because it is the producer of a big variety of food. Its efficient fields have become national leaders in their yields.

Because the economy of Sinaloa is sustained by its agricultural activities, the project seeks to recognize it and promote it, through a work that displays objects related to branches of technology, history of agriculture and agronomy as well as agricultural ways which sustain the economy of Sinaloa. Through the creation of the Museum of Agriculture the city government tries to allow the public to learn more about the forms of production in the locality, while recognizing both the agricultural practice as such, and those who make possible such a noble activity.

Project Brief

Intro:
Through agriculture, man has colonized the territory for centuries, creating irrigation systems and by planting with geometric laws. He has de-naturalized the natural areas through the planting of natural elements; the distance that is between the planted trees or plants depends on both the size of the crop itself as the collection systems used. Each plantation produces a texture and color over the territory.
Agriculture industrializes, the landscape urbanizes.

a10studio proposal’s outside is as important as the inside. There are no objects and an external reality, but a continuum between forms that wrap and un-wrap, that close and open, that focus and serve as a focus. The architecture as this, expanded in reality, in the middle, through the environment, is an extension. The environment in which it appears is a field.

They present 3 key strategies for the development of the project:
_Operative Topographies
_Ecomonumentality
_Active Ecology

The spectacle of nature and city become now comparable.

_OPERATIVE TOPOGRAPHIES:

Based on the topographic analysis of the site, we suggests a strategy of folding, cutting and movement of the territory. Such movements define platforms developed as programmatic scenarios, functional plateaus exacerbating their flexible surface condition, either as slipped and extended surfaces [dynamic soil], or as extruded surfaces [located reliefs]. In both cases it is manipulated landscapes that refer to the nature of vacant spaces, and ultimately, the very definition of landscape as a background, as construction and stage at the same time: landscapes within landscapes.

The ground respond to a willingness to overlap, the reliefs to an interlock.

These topographies form in any case, new geographies on the ground; mineral and vegetal landscapes in which the movements and flows are articulated by a manipulated geography and a generated space.

_ECOMONUMENTALITY:

We are used to think of architecture in function of the place, meaning that it could find the keys with which to tackle the project. There are many ways to anchor to the site. The whole place has gone from being understood as a landscape, whether natural or artificial, and it has ceased to be the neutral ground on which man-made architectural objects stand out, to become the object of primary interest and focus of attention. Thus, changing the point of view, the landscape loses its momentum and becomes an object of possible transformations, both at the architectural level, neighborhood and city-level.
The architecture starts a process of artificial blurring with an obvious interest in incorporating a natural condition, both in terms of composition as constructive (proposed construction system of rammed earth walls, to emphasize the use of existing assets in the site as well as develop strategies for sustainability and passive ecotechniques), in search for environmental sensitivity and a formal complexity that responds precisely to the values of the Culiacan society.
The project seeks to build a complete redefinition of the place, offering primarily the invention of a topography. So with this double movement, from the nature to the project and from the project to nature, we seek to rescue a “ecomonumental” condition.

An architectural proposal characterized by:
- Address both what is between things as things in themselves: public space [a hall, a plaza, a terrace] is therefore the primary object.
- The identification of the variability, the change as a key ingredient of architecture. With emphasis on the design of objects rather than the definition of definitive architectural programs.
- The commitment between scales. The project its determined and affects many areas beyond those granted by reason of mere physical contiguity. A project with translation capability, traveling between scales.
- Understand and feel simultaneously different scales and fields of perception and action.
- Acting on the near, immediate, tactile, and understand at the same time many other receptacles and dimensions that get modified with user actions, it is a flexible work program for the upcoming years.

_ACTIVE ECOLOGY:

To the old nostalgic or pseudobucolic ecology (freezing landscapes, territories and environments) we propose a bold ecology; reclassified to be reformulated. Based not in a fearful and non-intervention purely defensive -resistant- but in a no-tax, projective and rating -(re)promotive- intervention in synergy with the environment and also with new technologies. Not only possibilities but (re)positivist.

a10studio proposes:
- An ecology where sustainability means interaction.
- Where Nature is is also artificiality.
- Where the landscape is topography.
- Where energy is information and technology the vehicle to development.
- Where development is recycling and evolution is genetic.
- Where environment is the field.
Where retain involve always intervene.
The selection of vegetal species to exhibit took into account the degree of maintenance as well as the main agricultural products of the state of Sinaloa and the natural species of native vegetation. In this way we achieve that public space becomes in a same gesture an inside museum-park-public space. Presenting the exhibiting object in real time with their processes and characteristics of agricultural activity, where the user can directly see how these are conducted and its temporality. Species selection also took into consideration the color palette that these species may have throughout the year generating a “living park” an ever-changing exhibition and intervention which always seem dynamic and not static representation of agricultural processes.

PROJECT DATA:

architectural project: a10studio + lab07
project team: Mariano Arias-Diez, Luis Alarcón, Carlos Marín, Hugo Sánchez, Mia Modak
type: institutional, museum and park
location: Culiacan, Sinaloa (Mexico)
area: 45,000 m2
project year: 2010
client: Instituto Municipal de Planeacion (IMPLAN) de Culiacan
status: Competition finalist

CONSULTANTS:

landscape architecture: Hugo Sánchez / ENTORNO taller de paisaje
structural engineer: Ing. Fernando Alvarez / Construcciones FASA
rendering and digital visualization: Carlos Marín / lab07
lighting design: a10studio

contact a10studio:

_Sierra Guadarrama 85-1, Col. Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico .D.F 11000, Mexico
_Isla Santa Catarina, Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico
tel. +(55)26.23.26.73, +(624)13.15.14.7
email: info@a10studio.net
web: http://www.a10studio.net

Check out the area plans. We love how the thought has been put to every single detail:

And the competition boards. We would love to see the project built!

Congratulations to the whole team!

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